Deflation again in December 2014

Infla­tion was neg­at­ive 0.2% in Decem­ber 2014, com­pared to Decem­ber 2013. This was due mainly to fluc­tu­ations in cer­ti­fic­ate of enti­tle­ment premi­ums, soft hous­ing rent­al mar­ket and cheap­er oil.
This is the second con­sec­ut­ive month that Singa­pore encoun­ters defla­tion, with the index at -0.3% in Novem­ber 2014.

Core infla­tion, which excludes the cost of accom­mod­a­tion and private road trans­port, how­ever, remained at 1.5% in Decem­ber 2014. Food and pre­pared meals were the largest pos­it­ive con­trib­ut­ing factor to infla­tion in Decem­ber 2014.

The over­all infla­tion in 2014 is 1%, com­pared with 2.4% in 2013, the low­est since 2009. The core infla­tion in 2014 increased to 1.9% from 1.7% in 2013.

Offi­cial fore­casts for head­line infla­tion is between 0.5% to 1.5%, while the core infla­tion is between 2% to 3% in 2015.